Districts Adopt Policies To Comply With Federal Smoking Ban

Across the country this month, districts fearful of losing federal
aid are adopting no-smoking policies to comply with the
smoke-free-schools provision of the Goals 2000: Educate America
Act.

The provision, signed into law earlier this year, bars smoking as of
Dec. 26 in any indoor facility that receives federal money and that
provides education or health services to children under age 18. The
fine for noncompliance is $1,000 a day until a facility's federal aid
is exhausted. (See Education Week, 04/13/94.)

Before the law was enacted, 12 states had already passed legislation
prohibiting smoking in schools, and at least 10 legislatures have such
bills pending.

Some educators contend that aspects of the federal law are confusing
and that it may prove difficult to enforce. But federal officials say
the local response has been largely enthusiastic, although they do not
know the exact number of districts that have adopted no-smoking
policies.

Districts from California to Maine held events earlier this month to
celebrate the ban during the Great American Smokeout, a national event
designed to bring attention to the hazards of tobacco use. High school
students in Van Buren, Me., for instance, held a bonfire in their
school parking lot during which they burned hundreds of T-shirts
emblazoned with tobacco logos. In exchange for a Joe Camel or Marlboro
Man T-shirt, participants received shirts showing a cartoon character
stomping out a pack of cigarettes.

In their eagerness to eliminate smoking among young people, several
districts have recently moved beyond the ban and adopted harsh
penalties for smokers.

New Jersey already had a smoke-free-schools law, but some local
districts considered it too lenient and enacted more stringent policies
of their own. One district in the state not only expels students caught
smoking, but also slaps them with a $100 fine. And the Trenton, N.J.,
school board is lobbying for a local ordinance that would make smoking
on school grounds a criminal misdemeanor.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates
that 3,000 children in the United States start smoking each day. The
Clinton Administration has targeted tobacco use by young people as part
of its anti-tobacco drive. (See related story
)

Confusing and Punitive?

But despite the laudatory goal of preserving children's health, some
school districts are experiencing difficulties in implementing the
federal ban.

Edward R. Kealy, the director of federal programs for the National
School Boards Association, said it is unclear who will be liable if a
school is not in compliance by next month's deadline. School boards
could be held responsible for behaviors they have little control over,
Mr. Kealy said.

And some teachers' unions have expressed concern that the ban could
lead to measures that are too punitive. In St. Louis, union officials
said, the school district recently disciplined a teacher who was
smoking near, but not on, school grounds.

"When the discipline extends beyond schools, we certainly would
raise objections," said Darryl Alexander, the occupational- and
environmental-health coordinator for the American Federation of
Teachers.

(See Education Association senior professional associate, said last
week that there is still conflict in some districts over teachers'
union contracts that allow limited smoking in teachers' lounges and
offices. Some teachers are unhappy with the ban because they feel the
existing policies that allow limited smoking in restricted areas do not
pose a health risk to students.

A Loss of Revenue?

Some districts have also said the policy will be difficult to
enforce without additional personnel.

A few school systems have also complained that compliance with the
federal law could mean a loss of revenue from adult activities at which
smoking is now allowed.

The Cleveland school district is hoping to persuade state lawmakers
to include a waiver in Ohio's pending smoke-free-schools bill that
would allow adults to smoke in schools on bingo nights. Bingo games
bankroll school sports and other extracurricular activities, Richard
Beeler, the athletic director at Harvey High School in Cleveland, was
quoted as saying by The Associated Press.

"I don't understand why we can't have smoking in school if it's not
in session," he said. "If the state goes through with this, it will
cost us half our revenue."

But Frank Barham, the executive director of the Virginia School
Boards Association, said that education leaders in his state are not
too worried about the law because many feel it may be overturned by the
next Congress. With the Republicans in control of the House and the
Senate, he said, the federal law might ultimately be scrapped, and
state policymakers do not want to have to adopt a no-smoking law only
to repeal it.

"Most people here are going to wait and sit back and see what they
do in Washington," he said.

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